By Charles “Torrasque” Harrison

Are you feeling bored when you play Dota solo or with a group of friends? Do you need something to make Dota feel fresh and exciting again?

Look no further, because I have a variety of themed drafts for you to try out with a group of people or to recommend to your teammates when you play solo queue!

The sp00kiest night of Dota ever

– Solo mid

– Safelane carry

– Support (5)

– Support (4)

– Offlane

With this team, the heroes are scary, the ganking potential is terrifying, and the enemy team will be crippled by fear any time your heroes are off the map. Shadow Demon and Bane can set up Night Stalker and Shadow Fiend for easy kills in the early game, making space for Spectre and gaining an early advantage. Night Stalker and Shadow Fiend are incredibly flexible with item builds, allowing your team to get just about anything to fit the situation you're in.

With this team, you'll give your opponents nightmares whether they lose or not.

How to train your Dragon Knight

– Safelane carry

– Solo mid

– Offlane

– Support (5)

– Support (4)

Having a late game plan is always a good idea, but crushing the early and mid game is also an acceptable late game plan, right? With this team you can take a tower or two every time Dragon Knight's ultimate is up – if Jakiro hasn't liquidized it already, that is.

But what happens when they defend their towers? The answer is simple: Supernova + Dream Coil + Jakiro will win just about every team fight before twenty-five minutes, and Winter's Curse + those same abilities will win team fights after twenty-five minutes. The only way the enemy can even consider taking a team fight is to rush a BKB or have some other form of magic immunity to be able to deal with Supernova.

Nice BKB's you have there

– Safelane carry

– Support (4)

– Offlane

– Solo mid

– Support (5)

A lot of heroes in Dota require a BKB at some point, whether it's to increase their survivability or to prevent nearly all the damage an enemy hero dishes out. This lineup mocks BKB's while also forcing your opponents to still pick them up.

While any team with a Medusa might be slow to get off the ground, all of this lineup's lanes should be solid. The ultimate goal is to get Lina an Aghanim's Scepter and to take team fights whenever Medusa's Stone Gaze is up. Beastmaster's Roar should also be up for team fights, but depending on the opposition he may have to run around with Lina and Disruptor to get kills across the map. Just imagine the Glimpse + Hawk synergy!

The late game is mega-secure, provided that Medusa gets enough farm, but if your team is that worried then Disruptor can pick up an Aghanim's and apply an AoE Doom to all who get caught.

Tower defense

– Support

– Support

– Support?

– Probably support

– Why not 5 supports

I know what you're thinking: “Five supports is really awful”. And I agree: this lineup is really bad. But it's also so much fun. By sitting under towers, ganking, winning team fights, or whatever, your team will acquire farm and levels. You might want to all get Midas if you have the time and space, but it doesn't really matter. What matters is that you defend your towers at all costs.

Ogre Magi Bloodlust's towers, Lich gives them Frost Armor, Treant Protector heals them, and Venomancer supports them with Plague Wards. Nyx is both your most and least important hero in this lineup, as he'll be making space and farming up an Aghanim's for himself. Once Aghanim's is up, your Bloodlusted, Frost Armored, Living Armored, and Plague Warded towers will be nigh-invulnerable with a burrowed Nyx behind them. No one would dare push into that!

I recommend you only play this lineup with a group of friends, and even then you'll probably lose a bunch of games with it. What matters is that you have fun playing with this lineup, and in a game where there are never any guarantees I can definitely guarantee that you'll have fun with this.

Tried out a build and want to share your stories with us? Drop @torrasque a line and tweet us @collegiatedota to let us know how it turned out! +1 if you include a screencap or a video.